Learning to play a musical instrument is a challenging task for most students. While playing simple melodies on a musical instrument can often be done, it is difficult to learn a sufficient level of the proper techniques in order to play and master even relatively simple musical works. Developing a proficiency in playing a musical instrument requires dedication, constant practice, and the application of proper playing techniques and methods.
There are a wide variety of teaching methods that are currently used to train music students of all levels. These include music books and methods (e.g., the Suzuki method for reading music), audio tapes and compact discs, CD-ROMs, DVDs, video tapes, and other hard goods. While each of these offers certain advantages, we have determined that each of these approaches are limited in the manner in which information is presented to the student. For example, these music educational products are generally linear, which take each student from one conceptual lesson (e.g., learning to sight read music) to another conceptual lesson (e.g., learning to play scales). Each student is expected to follow and practice the techniques provided in one lesson before moving onto the next lesson in sequential order. These products often fail because teaching music requires a level of interaction with each student. In addition, each of these teaching methods usually requires the hard goods to be shipped to the student, which may include packaging costs, handling costs, shipping costs, and/or delays.
Many students also have intermediate goals in learning to play a musical instrument, such as, for example, playing a song a student heard on the radio or a particular recording. While learning the proper playing techniques from the previously mentioned teaching methods may help the student to play that song, these teaching methods do not take such goals into account. Even further, many students become bored with these technique-oriented methods and advance directly to the sheet music or tablature to attempt to play the song that the student heard on the radio. As a result, the student struggles to play the song or the musical work and eventually becomes discouraged.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide systems and methods that overcome these and other deficiencies of the prior art.
For example, it would be desirable to provide an interactive education application that delivers, assembles, presents, and updates personalized courses, such as music lessons, to a user.